Does Math Make You Anxious?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5js6b2579tnx-en
<ul>
<li> Greater anxiety towards mathematics is associated with lower scores in mathematics, both between
and within countries. </li>
<li>The better a student’s schoolmates perform in mathematics, the greater the student’s anxiety
towards mathematics. </li>
<li>Teachers’ use of formative assessment practices is associated with lower levels of mathematics
anxiety in 39 countries and economies. </li></ul>2015-02-01T00:00:00ZHow has Student Performance Evolved Over Time?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5js7q3kbkklt-en
Every three years, when PISA results are published, the world’s media focuses on countries’ rankings in mathematics, reading and science performance. Often, what is lost in the subsequent national-level soulsearching about how to improve student performance is the fact that many countries have raised their game significantly since the first PISA test was conducted in 2000. In fact, half of the countries and economies that have participated in at least three PISA cycles have improved significantly in reading performance since 2000, a third have improved in mathematics performance since 2003, and almost a third have improved in science performance since 2006.2015-01-01T00:00:00ZDoes Homework Perpetuate Inequities in Education?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5jxrhqhtx2xt-en
<ul>
<li> While most 15-year-old students spend part of their after-school time doing
homework, the amount of time they spend on it shrank between 2003 and 2012. </li>
<li> Socio-economically advantaged students and students who attend socio-economically
advantaged schools tend to spend more time doing homework.</li>
<li>
While the amount of homework assigned is associated with mathematics performance
among students and schools, other factors are more important in determining
the performance of school systems as a whole. </li></ul>2014-12-01T00:00:00ZDo Countries with High Mean Performance in PISA Maintain their Lead as Students Age?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5jxszm0bzxnn-en
<ul>
<li> Countries where 15-year-old students perform at high standards internationally
tend to be the same countries where these young adults tend to perform well at
the age of 26 to 28. </li>
<li> School systems need to ensure that their students perform at a high level by the time
they complete compulsory schooling and that these skills are maintained and further
developed thereafter.</li></ul>2014-11-01T00:00:00ZHow is Equity in Resource Allocation Related to Student Performance?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5jxvl3zwbzwg-en
<ul>
<li> How educational resources are allocated is just as important as the amount
of resources available. </li>
<li> High-performing countries and economies tend to allocate resources more equitably
across socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged schools. </li>
<li> Among the countries with better-resourced schools, as reported by principals,
equity in resource allocation is not related to the overall quality of resources. </li></ul>2014-10-01T00:00:00ZAre Disadvantaged Students more Likely to Repeat Grades?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5jxwwfp1ngr7-en
<ul>
<li> One in eight students across OECD countries has repeated a grade at least once
before the age of 15. </li>
<li> Many countries reduced the rate of grade repetition between 2003 and 2012. </li>
<li> One in five disadvantaged 15-year-olds has repeated a grade. Even among
students with similar academic performance, the likelihood of repeating a grade is
one-and-a-half times greater for disadvantaged students than for advantaged
students. </li></ul>2014-09-01T00:00:00ZWhen is Competition Between Schools Beneficial?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5jz0v4zzbcmv-en
<ul>
<li> In most school systems, over 50% of 15-year-olds students attend schools that
compete with another school to attract students from the same residential area. </li>
<li>Across countries and economies, performance is unrelated to whether or not schools
have to compete for students. </li>
<li>When choosing a school for their children, parents look at a range of criteria;
for disadvantaged parents, cost-related factors often weigh as much as, if not more
than, the factors related to the quality of instruction. </li>
<li>School systems with low levels of competition among schools often have high levels
of social inclusion, meaning that students from diverse social backgrounds attend
the same schools. In contrast, in systems where parents can choose schools, and
schools compete for enrolment, schools are often more socially segregated. </li></ul>2014-08-01T00:00:00ZDo 15-year-olds Know How to Manage Money?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5jz159737gd7-en
<ul>
<li> On average across the 13 OECD countries and economies that participated in
the PISA financial literacy assessment, 10% of students can analyse complex financial
products and solve non-routine financial problems, while 15% can, at best, make
simple decisions about everyday spending, and recognise the purpose of everyday
financial documents, such as an invoice. </li>
<li>In 17 out of the 18 participating countries and economies, boys and girls show similar
skills in financial literacy. However, among students with comparable performance
in mathematics and reading, boys perform better than girls in financial literacy
in 11 out of 18 countries and economies. </li></ul>2014-07-01T00:00:00ZDoes Pre-primary Education Reach Those Who Need it Most?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5jz15974pzvg-en
<ul>
<li> Attendance in pre-primary education is associated with better student performance
later on. </li>
<li>Fifteen-year-old students in 2012 were more likely than 15-year-olds in 2003
to have attended at least one year of pre-primary education. </li>
<li>The gap in pre-primary attendance rates between socio-economically advantaged
and disadvantaged pupils is growing. </li></ul>2014-06-01T00:00:00ZAre Grouping and Selecting Students for Different Schools Related to Students' Motivation to Learn?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5jz5hlpb6nxw-en
<ul>
<li> On average across OECD countries, students who are highly motivated to learn
mathematics because they believe it will help them later on score better in
mathematics – by the equivalent of half a year of schooling – than students who
are not highly motivated. </li>
<li>Students’ motivation to learn mathematics is lower in education systems that sort
and group students into different schools and/or programmes. </li></ul>2014-05-01T00:00:00ZAre 15-Year-Olds Creative Problem-solvers?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5jz6zgzq6vd8-en
<ul>
<li> To do well on PISA’s first assessment of creative problem-solving skills, students need to be
open to novelty, tolerate doubt and uncertainty, and dare to use intuition to initiate a solution. </li>
<li>Just because a student performs well in core school subjects doesn’t mean he or she is
proficient in problem solving. In Australia, Brazil, Italy, Japan, Korea, Macao China, Serbia,
England (United Kingdom) and the United States, students perform significantly better in
problem solving, on average, than students in other countries who show similar performance
in reading, mathematics and science. </li>
<li> Many of the best performers in problem solving are Asian countries and economies, where
students demonstrate high levels of reasoning skills and self-directed learning. Meanwhile,
compared to students of similar overall performance, students in Brazil, Ireland, Korea and
the United States perform strongest on interactive problems that require students to uncover
useful information by exploring the problem situation and gather feedback on the effect of
their actions. </li></ul>2014-04-01T00:00:00ZDo Students Have the Drive to Succeed?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5jz777gcd0vj-en
<ul>
<li>When students believe that investing effort in learning will make a difference, they score
significantly higher in mathematics. </li>
<li>The fact that large proportions of students in most countries consistently believe that
student achievement is mainly a product of hard work, rather than inherited intelligence,
suggests that education and its social context can make a difference in instilling values that
foster success in education. </li>
<li>Teachers’ use of cognitive-activation strategies, such as giving students problems that require
them to think for an extended time, presenting problems for which there is no immediately
obvious way of arriving at a solution, and helping students to learn from their mistakes,
is associated with students’ drive. </li>
<li>Students whose teachers set clear goals for learning and offer feedback on their performance
in mathematics also tend to report higher levels of perseverance and openness to problem solving. </li></ul>2014-03-01T00:00:00ZDo Parents' Occupations Have an Impact on Student Performance?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5jz8mr7kp026-en
<ul>
<li>Students whose parents work in professional occupations generally outperform
other students in mathematics, while students whose parents work in elementary
occupations tend to underachieve compared to their peers. </li>
<li>The strength of the relationship between parents’ occupations and student
performance varies considerably across countries: for example, when it comes to
mathematics performance, the children of cleaners in Shanghai-China outperform
the children of professionals in the United States, and the children of professionals
in Germany outperform the children of professionals in Finland, on average. </li>
<li>Finland and Japan achieve high levels of performance by ensuring that the children
of parents who work in elementary occupations are given the same education
opportunities and the same encouragement as the children of professionals. </li></ul>2014-02-01T00:00:00ZWho Are the School Truants?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5jzb019jwmd5-en
<ul>
<li>Across OECD countries, 18% of students skipped classes at least once in the two weeks
prior to the PISA test, and 15% of students skipped a day of school or more over
the same period. </li>
<li>Few students in high-performing school systems skip classes or days of school. </li>
<li>For students in OECD countries, skipping classes is associated with a 32-point lower
score in mathematics, while skipping days of school is associated with a 52-point
lower score. </li>
<li>Truancy is observed among all students, whether advantaged or disadvantaged. </li></ul>2014-01-01T00:00:00ZWho Are the Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k3wb8k5vr7l-en
<ul>
<li>Strong performers and successful reformers in education share some key characteristics:
a belief in the potential of all their students, strong political will, and the capacity of
all stakeholders to make sustained and concerted efforts towards improvement. </li>
<li>Countries/Economies that have improved their reading performance over the years
have done so by reducing the proportion of poor-performing students, increasing the
share of high performers, and/or weakening the impact of students’ socio-economic
status on their performance. </li></ul>2013-11-01T00:00:00ZWhat Do Immigrant Students Tell Us About the Quality of Education Systems?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k3wb8k80n7k-en
<ul>
<li>Immigrant students who share a common country of origin, and therefore many
cultural similarities, perform very differently across school systems. </li>
<li>The difference in performance between immigrant students and non-immigrant
students of similar socio-economic status is smaller in school systems with
large immigrant populations and where immigrant students are as diverse in
socio-economic status as other students. </li></ul>2013-11-01T00:00:00ZDo Students Perform Better in Schools with Orderly Classrooms?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k40d63gcd44-en
<ul>
<li>Most students enjoy orderly classrooms for their language-of-instruction lessons. </li>
<li>Socio-economically disadvantaged students are less likely to enjoy orderly classrooms
than advantaged students. </li>
<li>Orderly classrooms – regardless of the school’s overall socio-economic profile –
are related to better performance. </li></ul>2013-09-01T00:00:00ZWho are the Academic All-rounders?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k40hdhft3bx-en
<ul>
<li>On average across OECD countries, around 4% of students are top performers
in reading, mathematics and science (all-rounders). </li>
<li>Australia, Finland, Hong Kong-China, Japan, New Zealand, Shanghai-China
and Singapore have larger proportions of these students than any other
country or economy. </li></ul>2013-09-01T00:00:00ZCould Learning Strategies Reduce the Performance Gap Between Advantaged and Disadvantaged Students?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k4220w36z25-en
<ul>
<li>Students who know how to summarise information tend to perform better in reading. </li>
<li>If disadvantaged students used effective learning strategies to the same extent as
students from more advantaged backgrounds do, the performance gap between the
two groups would be almost 20% narrower. </li></ul>2013-06-01T00:00:00ZDo Immigrant Students' Reading Skills Depend on How Long they Have Been in their New Country?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k44zcpqn5q4-en
<UL>
<LI>In most OECD countries, newly arrived 15-year-old immigrant students show
poorer reading performance than immigrant students who arrived in their new
country when they were younger than five. </LI>
<LI>Students who emigrated from less-developed countries where the home language
differs from their new language of instruction are particularly vulnerable to the
"late-arrival" penalty in reading performance. </LI>
<LI>Immigrant students from countries with similar levels of development and the
same language as the host country do not suffer any late-arrival penalty at all. </LI></UL>2013-05-01T00:00:00ZWhat Makes Urban Schools Different?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k46l8w342jc-en
<UL>
<LI>In most countries and economies, students who attend schools in urban areas tend
to perform at higher levels than other students. </LI>
<LI>Socio-economic status explains only part of the performance difference between
students who attend urban schools and other students. </LI>
<LI>Schools in urban settings are larger, tend to benefit from better educational
resources, and often enjoy greater autonomy in how they can allocate those resources. </LI></UL>2013-05-01T00:00:00ZDoes it Matter Which School a Student Attends?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k4818hwp89v-en
<UL>
<LI>Successful education systems are able to guarantee that all students succeed at high levels. </LI>
<LI>Across OECD countries, around 60% of the overall, country-level variation in student
performance can be traced to differences in how well students who attend the same
school can be expected to perform. </LI>
<LI>About 40% of the variation in student performance in OECD countries is observed
between schools; but among high-performing countries, differences in performance are
generally smaller than those in the average OECD country. </LI></UL>2013-04-01T00:00:00ZGrade Expectationshttp://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k49czl2s8bv-en
<UL>
<LI>Countries vary in the way they use marks, but they all tend to reward the mastery
of skills and attitudes that promote learning. </LI>
<LI>Teachers tend to give girls and socio-economically advantaged students better
school marks, even if they don’t have better performance and attitudes than boys
and socio-economically disadvantaged students.</LI>
<LI>It seems that marks not only measure students’ progress in school, they also
indicate the skills, behaviours, habits and attitudes that are valued in school. </LI></UL>2013-03-01T00:00:00ZAre Countries Moving Towards More Equitable Education Systems?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k4bwpbqrz9s-en
<UL>
<LI>PISA results show that no country or economy has reached the goal of creating a
completely equitable education system, but some are much closer than others.</LI>
<LI>Some countries and economies have shown that improvements in equity can be
achieved at the same time as improvements in overall performance, and in a relatively
short time.</LI></UL>2013-02-01T00:00:00ZWhat Do Students Think About School?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k4c78mk3g6f-en
<UL>
<LI>Most students think that what they learned in school is useful for them
or their future. </LI>
<LI>Students’ attitudes towards school are associated with their reading skills. </LI>
<LI>Students who report that the climate at their school is conducive to learning
tend to have more positive attitudes towards school. </LI></ul>2013-01-01T00:00:00ZWhat Do Students Expect To Do After Finishing Upper Secondary School?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k4c78mmxchb-en
<UL>
<LI>The percentage of students who expect to complete university is highest in Korea
(80%) and lowest in Latvia (25%).</LI>
<LI>Many high-performing students do not expect to go to university, representing
potentially lost talent to an economy and society while many low-performing
students think they will make it to university, even if their current performance
suggests they are not likely to succeed.</LI>
<LI>Around one in four students expects to end his or her formal schooling at the
upper secondary level and thus needs the skills to make a smooth transition into
work and adulthood.</LI></ul>2012-12-01T00:00:00ZHow Do Immigrant Students Fare in Disadvantaged Schools?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k8zpcj3qnxt-en
<UL>
<LI>Immigrant students often have to overcome multiple barriers at once in order to
succeed at school. </LI>
<LI>Across most OECD countries, poor performance among immigrant students relative
to other students is strongly related to social disadvantage at school, as reflected in
the proportion of students whose mothers have low levels of education. </LI>
<LI>The concentration, in a school, of immigrant students or of those who do not speak
the language of instruction at home is not as strongly related to poor performance. </LI></UL>2012-11-01T00:00:00ZDo Today's 15-Year-Olds Feel Environmentally Responsible?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k918xhzk88t-en
<UL>
<LI>Most 15-year-olds in OECD countries have some understanding of environmental
issues and feel that threats to the environment are a serious concern for them and/or
for other people in their country.</LI>
<LI>Scientific understanding of the environment is key if students are to have a realistic
appreciation of environmental challenges facing humanity. Students without sufficient
knowledge of science consistently underestimate the time needed to find solutions
to such environmental problems as what to do with nuclear waste or how to stop the
loss of plant and animal species.</LI></UL>2012-10-01T00:00:00ZAre School Vouchers Associated with Equity in Education?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k91d4jp42s7-en
<UL>
<LI>Privately managed schools tend to attract more advantaged student populations;
but the difference between the socio-economic profiles of public and private schools
is narrowed when privately managed schools receive higher levels of public funding.</LI>
<LI>The difference between the socio-economic profiles of publicly and privately
managed schools tends to be twice as large in school systems that use universal
vouchers as in systems that use targeted vouchers.</LI></UL>2012-09-01T00:00:00ZIs there really such a Thing as a "Second Chance" in Education?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k91d4jrld9q-en
<UL>
<LI>While the reading proficiency of Canadian 15-year-olds closely predicts reading
proficiency at age 24, young adults can shape their reading skills after the end of
compulsory schooling.</LI>
<LI>In the transition to young adulthood, reading skills generally improve – but more for
some groups than for others. Immigrants, in particular, manage to close performance
gaps between the ages of 15 and 24.</LI>
<LI>Participation in some forms of formal post-secondary education is consistently and
substantially related to improvements in reading skills between the ages of 15 and 24.</LI></UL>2012-08-01T00:00:00ZAre Students More Engaged When Schools Offer Extracurricular Activities?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k961l4ccczt-en
Science project. The very phrase is nearly synonymous with hands-on learning, learning-by-doing, collaboration. Are students more engaged and do they perform better in science if their school encourages them to work on science projects, participate in science fairs, belong to a science-related club or go on science-related field trips – in addition to teaching them the mandatory science curriculum? To find out, PISA 2006 asked school principals about what kinds of extracurricular science activities they offered their students and linked their responses with students’ performance on the PISA science test.2012-07-01T00:00:00ZAre Large Cities Educational Assets or Liabilities?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k962hdqjflr-en
Large cities are generally educational assets: in most countries, performance improves dramatically when only the scores of students in urban areas are considered, although this is not the case in some countries, such as Belgium, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States. When comparing the performance of students in large cities, students in Portugal and Israel perform as well as those in Singapore, and students in Poland perform as well as those in Hong Kong.2012-06-01T00:00:00ZDoes Performance-Based Pay Improve Teaching?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k98q27r2stb-en
PISA has long established that high-performing education systems tend to pay their teachers
more. They also often prioritise the quality of teaching over other choices, including
class size. But in the current budgetary climate, paying everybody more may not be a
viable alternative. So many countries are now targeting salary increases to schools with
particular needs or short supplies of teachers, or have developed greater local flexibility
in salary schemes. Some countries have responded with systems of individual pay. But is
recognising and rewarding teaching performance through pay an effective way to leverage
improvement?2012-05-01T00:00:00ZHow "Green" are Today's 15-Year-Olds?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9bdt3vsbf0-en
Today's students are growing up in a precarious natural environment. Climate change and the loss of biodiversity threaten the ecosystems that support life; a lack of clean water and sanitation imperils the health of hundreds of millions of people every day. While trained geoscientists, biologists and environmental scientists lead the way in shaping policies to reduce the impact of human activity on the global environment -and to have more equitable access to natural resources for all - informed citizens play an important role, too. Since individual actions have an impact on the environment, understanding scientific theories and being able to evaluate evidence can help people to make informed decisions about such daily choices as whether or not to leave the television on standby, what temperature to set the heat, and what kind of car to buy (or not). Learning about the environment early in a student's schooling can help to shape the way that person will interact with the environment as an adult.2012-04-01T00:00:00ZWhat Kinds of Careers do Boys and Girls Expect for Themselves?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9d417g2933-en
When you think of someone who is an engineer, do you imagine a man or a woman wearing a hardhat? How about when you imagine a teacher standing in front of a class of schoolchildren? If you answer "a man" to the first question, and "a woman" to the second, there’s probably a reason. And the reason is simply that more men than women pursue careers in fields such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics, while women are over-represented in the humanities and medical sciences. This type of gender segregation in the labour market is still prevalent in many countries. But will it continue? Girls now do as well as, and often better than, boys in most core school subjects; and proficiency in a subject influences 15-year-olds’ thinking about the kind of career they want to pursue. Or does it?2012-03-01T00:00:00ZDoes Money Buy Strong Performance in PISA?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9fhmfzc4xx-en
This issue will show that strong performers do not invest scarce resources in smaller classes, but in higher teachers' salaries. They are neither the countries that spend the most on education, nor are they the wealthiest countries; rather they are the countries that are committed to providing high-quality education to all students in the belief that all students can achieve at high levels.2012-02-01T00:00:00ZAre Boys and Girls Ready for the Digital Age?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9gzj7398bw-en
Information and communication technologies revolutionise not only the speed at which information can be transmitted, but also how information is conveyed and received. Technological innovations have a profound effect on the types of skills that are demanded in today's labour markets and the types of jobs that have the greatest potential for growth. Most of these jobs now require some familiarity with, if not mastery of, navigating through digital material where readers determine the structure of what they read rather than follow the pre-established order of text as presented in a book…2012-01-01T00:00:00ZHow Are School Systems Adapting to Increasing Numbers of Immigrant Students?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9h362hs646-en
Whether in flight from conflict, with the hope of building a better life, or to seize a social or economic opportunity, people have been crossing borders for as long as there have been borders to cross. Modern means of transportation and communication, the globalisation of the labour market, and the ageing of populations in OECD countries will drive migration well into the next decades. The key to maintaining social cohesion during these population movements is to integrate immigrants and their families well into their adopted countries; and education can be a powerful lever to achieve this.2011-12-01T00:00:00ZWhat Can Parents Do to Help Their Children Succeed in School?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9h362jdgnq-en
Most parents know, instinctively, that spending more time with their children and being actively involved in their education will give their children a good head-start in life. But as many parents have to juggle competing demands at work and at home, there never seems to be enough time. Often, too, parents are reluctant to offer to help their children with school work because they feel they lack some of the skills that would make a difference to their children’s success in school...2011-11-01T00:00:00ZSchool Autonomy and Accountabilityhttp://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9h362kcx9w-en
In recent years, many schools have grown into more autonomous organisations and have become more accountable to students, parents and the public at large for their outcomes. PISA results suggest that, when autonomy and accountability are intelligently combined, they tend to be associated with better student performance...2011-10-01T00:00:00ZDo Students Today Read for Pleasure?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9h362lhw32-en
Students who are highly engaged in a wide range of reading activities are more likely than other students to be effective learners and to perform well at school. Research also documents a strong link between reading practices, motivation and proficiency among adults. Proficiency in reading is crucial for individuals to make sense of the world they live in and to continue learning throughout their lives...2011-09-01T00:00:00ZPrivate schoolshttp://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9h362mhtkd-en
At some point in their child’s education, many parents have considered whether it would be worth the expense to enrol their child in a private school. For parents, private schools may offer a particular kind of instruction that is not available in public schools. If private schools also attract higher-performing students and better teachers than public schools, parents will also feel that they are securing the best possible education for their child...2011-08-01T00:00:00ZWhen Students Repeat Grades or Are Transferred Out of Schoolhttp://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9h362n5z45-en
School systems handle the challenges of diverse student populations in different ways. Some countries have non-selective and comprehensive school systems that seek to provide all students with similar opportunities, leaving it to individual schools and teachers to meet the particular needs of every student. Other countries group students, whether in different schools or in different classes within schools, with the aim of serving students according to their particular academic potential, interests and/or behaviour. Having underperforming students repeat grades or transferring struggling or disruptive students to other schools are two common policies used to group students for this reason...2011-07-01T00:00:00ZHow Do Some Students Overcome Their Socio-Economic Background?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9h362p77tf-en
Are socio-economically disadvantaged students condemned to perpetuate an intergenerational cycle of poor academic achievement, poor job prospects and poverty? Not if they attend schools that provide them with more regular classes.<P>
Resilient students in the 2006 and 2009 PISA surveys displayed high levels of academic achievement despite the fact that they came from disadvantaged backgrounds. They beat the odds stacked against them to outperform peers from the same socio-economic background and be ranked among the top quarter of students internationally...2011-06-01T00:00:00ZHas Discipline in School Deteriorated?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9h362q5ng4-en
Classrooms and schools with more disciplinary problems are less conducive to learning, since teachers have to spend more time creating an orderly environment before instruction can begin. Interruptions in the classroom disrupt students’ concentration on, and their engagement in, their lessons. Results from PISA 2009 show that disciplinary climate is strongly associated with student performance. Students who reported that their reading lessons are often interrupted perform less well than students who reported that there are few or no interruptions in class.<p>
Popular belief has it that every successive crop of students is less disciplined than the one before it, and that teachers are losing control over their classes. But popular belief has it wrong: according to data gathered in PISA 2009, the majority of students in OECD countries enjoy orderly classrooms, and between 2000 and 2009, discipline in school did not deteriorate – in fact, in most countries it improved...2011-05-01T00:00:00ZDoes Investing in After-School Classes Pay Off?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9h362rftmq-en
With all the competition to get into the right universities to secure the best jobs, secondary school students are often encouraged to take after-school classes in subjects already taught in school to help them improve their performance – even if that means forsaking other fun and interesting ways of spending after-school hours, such as playing sports, taking music lessons or volunteering at a local community centre or hospital. Students in the OECD area spend an average of nearly two-and-a-half hours per week in after-school lessons. In Greece, Israel, Korea, Turkey and the partner countries Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar and Tunisia, students spend over four-and-a-half hours per week in such classes. Does that investment in after-school classes pay off?...2011-04-01T00:00:00ZImproving Performance: Leading from the Bottomhttp://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9h362shtlr-en
Since the PISA 2000 and 2009 surveys both focused on reading, one can track in detail how student reading performance has changed over that period. Among the 26 OECD countries with comparable results in both assessments, Chile, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Korea, Poland, Portugal, and the partner countries Albania, Brazil, Indonesia, Latvia, Liechtenstein and Peru all show overall improvements in reading performance. The fact that such a diverse group of countries succeeded in raising the level of their students’ performance in reading indicates that improvement is possible regardless of a country’s cultural context or where it starts out from. For example, Korea was already among the best-performing countries in 2000 and it improved further by 2009, Poland moved from below the OECD average to above it, and Chile rose from a relatively low performance rank to one that is much closer to that of other OECD countries...2011-03-01T00:00:00ZDoes Participation in Pre-Primary Education Translate into Better Learning Outcomes at School?http://www.oecdilibrary.com/content/workingpaper/5k9h362tpvxp-en
It’s elementary: students benefit from pre-primary education. The OECD’s PISA 2009 results show that in practically all OECD countries 15-year-old students who had attended some pre-primary school outperformed students who had not. In fact, the difference between students who had attended for more than one year and those who had not attended at all averaged 54 score points in the PISA reading assessment – or more than one year of formal schooling (39 score points). While most students who had attended pre-primary education had come from advantaged backgrounds, the performance gap remains even when comparing students from similar backgrounds. After accounting for socio-economic background, students who had attended pre-primary school scored an average of 33 points higher than those who had not...2011-02-01T00:00:00Z